A competition like Cutthroat Kitchen can surely be a transformative undertaking for the chef contestants, as they're almost always pushed beyond their culinary comfort zones. But their ingredients, too, are often forced to become something they're usually not in order to satisfy a challenge — that's where Testing the Sabotages comes in. Before Alton Brown could auction off a test to, say, turn potato chip crumbs into gnocchi, as he did on tonight's all-new episode, the Cutthroat culinary crew had to attempt the conversion firsthand to make sure it was both possible and fair within the time limits.

Just minutes into starting his test, food stylist Hugo Sanchez struggled to work with the gnocchi dough, and he admitted, "The chips in it are preventing it from binding as a normal dough would. It's actually turning out to be a bigger deal than I expected." Nevertheless, he soon managed to roll the dough into a log and lob off bite-size dumplings, and in the spirit of evilicious cooking, he said, "It may not taste like gnocchi, but it's going to look like gnocchi." Sure enough, after a quick boil and pan-fry, he served up a simple yet presentable gnocchi offering, though he wondered if chefs could use their imagination to create an even better rendition. "It's definitely something you can play with," Hugo noted. "Maybe some bacon, some sour cream — call it a baked potato gnocchi."

Click the play button on the video above to watch Hugo's test unfold, then catch up on the latest Testing the Sabotages commentary on FN Dish.